Conventionally, when a driving force is propagated to an opening and closing body via gears, like in the case of this type of apparatus with opening and closing mechanism, a speed change resulting from a play factor, such as a starting torque of a motor or a backlash of a gear (referred to as a play factor of a driving force transmission system from here on) is detected by using an intricate circuit, such as a current sensor. Furthermore, a speed change resulting from a finger, a foreign object or the like which is caught at the time of opening or closing the opening and closing body is detected by using a change of a detected value of a position sensor. Conventionally, detection of a speed change resulting from a play factor of the driving force transmission system and detection of a speed change resulting from a foreign object or the like being caught are carried out in this way by using different sensors.
Furthermore, patent reference 1 discloses a lid closing operation controlling method of detecting the position of a lid at a predetermined distance in front of a predetermined closed position of the lid, and carrying out a control operation of gradually decreasing a driving force for moving the lid while the lid is moving from this detected position to a movement completion position which is beyond the predetermined closed position by a predetermined distance to press the lid against an opening with a very small force is disclosed.